So when people are told not to buy from China,

how will you tell your employer:

* My alarm clock broke but couldn't buy a new one because it was made in China
* Couldn't drive to work because my telephone snuffed it and they're all made in China
* I was told not to buy useless posh things like cell phones. That's okay, they're made in China too... actually, it's not okay because I can't find a pay phone anywhere. If I did, if it said it required only a dime, where's the "out of order" sign?
* My washing machine broke, so that's why my clothes stink. Can't buy a new one...
* Hmmm, my clothes get holes in them after only 10 washings... can't buy new clothes... not even underwear, oh my...
* My computer might be made in Taiwan or the Philippines, but the modem and monitor came from you-know-where, but the computer is a luxury too -- wait a minute, every job out there demands computer experience. Small/home business owners need computers too.

Oh, if nobody bought cell phones, wouldn't that drive cell phone services out of business? (the economy is a symbiotic relationship. Always will be...)

I do try not to buy from China, but I lapse from time to time. The real issue is, do you really NEED this product made in China, or do you want it 'cos it's cool. Are you buying a new alarm clock/phone/washing machine because your current one is broken or because the one at the store is just really cool and you have to have it even though your current one works fine.

Do you really have to have new garments because your current stuff has holes, stains, no elastic, etc or are you buying new clothes because you WANT that ____________.

My cell phone is almost five years old - but it works, so why buy another? So what if people laugh at it because it is so big. My lap top (now my only computer) is nearly six years old, but is has enough memory for what I need to do and runs the software I use, so why buy a new one?

This was not always the case . America got by quite well without the imported crap .

I recall when sony was made in Japan , Japan did the same thing as america did , they began using Malaysia and Taiwan for their products .

Makita was Japan and then some was made in the US now most is made in china but the cost never went down because of the cheap labor .

I refuse to buy another thing unless I can't live without it . i will by reconditioned items or used items before new crap .

My cell phone is 6 years old and still works like a phone , I could care less about bell's and whistles on a dman phone or how it looks .

My computer was 10 years old and finally died so I got a used on for $200 .

My car in from 1973 and I could care less about bell's and whistles aall I need is transportation not a moving electronic lab or a home away from home .

I fix everything that is repairable if not I do without of get used thrift store stuff .

Screw supporting some other countries economy or giving them our jobs so we can become what we are , a third world country of slave labor .

Every dime counts . If most people would do without and stay away from box stores we may just kill the corporate pigs . People in america will never even give this a chance because they are sold on having new crap that either breaks or becomes obsolete just as we have become , broke or obsolete .

there is the tinfoil philosophy things are made cheap for the sake of breaking more quickly, so they get replaced more quickly, and therefore the economy keeps going.

Which is not always true, certainly, but in some cases it is not false.

A digital alarm clock's LED panel burnt out because the voltage regulator within was set too high. Now I never became an electrician, but I know just enough of electricity to know if they lowered it maybe even half a volt, it would have lasted longer.

The rest of it works, so I use the waterfall/white noise, but it was sad to witness the blue turn to black.

My current cell phone works, though for a while I had odd static noises with reception...

My current PC and laptop will hopefully last as well; which is why I bought extended warranties. The lapto pwas definitely a cheapie model, but works for what I need it to do. The desktop I built out of purportedly high quality components and, with 4 cores and plenty of RAM, and a green power supply, it'll last years with ease. I usually upgrade every 3, now I can probably go 5 or 6...

Actually, the underwear I just bought, same price and all, feels like it's got more fabric in it. I even compared to an old holey pair kept in the drawer I never open. Because it's holey too. And not in a religious way. Nor do I buy designer underwear for colors or patterns. Except the pairs with the smiley faces on them, but that's not relevant right now. :) But there were pairs that did wear out quickly, for no logical reason except they were made cheap and with as little fabric as possible. Don't tell me I simply "want" new underwear. Or I'll tell you what you want. I'm not sure you'd like to know that... :evilgrin:

so less likely to buy undergarments because you "want" them. Many women buy fancy lingerie to help them feel pretty and sexy (even though no one sees it). However, many men seem to enjoy or encourage their girlfriends/wives/etc wearing sexy underclothes.

we are going to have to do without at times. Recycled clothes are available at the Salvation Army if you don't want to buy American. Many American made items can be found on the web. I myself have tried not to buy anything that I don't need. Our one luxury is food and I can see that we need to be much more vigilant about that. Peace, Kim

Boycotting an entire nation is rather futile.

For me, I have put a stop to toys from china for my children. Books and good old art supplies made in the usa are still easily available. It's a win/win scenario for me and for the kids.

I buy organic/all natural toiletries/toothpaste made in the usa.

The cat gets organic cat food - Newman's and Wysong. To the best of my knowledge the ingredients do not come from china in any manner. If I hear otherwise, I'll move on to other natural food for pets. That hasn't inconvenienced me at all.

We buy gluten free and organic/farmer's market foods. It's made more affordable considering that the cost is offset by not having to bow to pressure from the kids to buy junk food/snacks/crap that are marketed to kids in super markets. We also cook at home every day and make lunches for school. We buy less, maybe break even or are ahead if we shopped at a regular supermarket, and feel better.

Try underwear for kids from Hanna Anderssen, it's organic and lasts forever. Or underwear from: http://www.rawganique.com/Womenswear.htm

These items cost more up front, but are more cost effective in the long run.

If you remember, our government essentially paid companies to pack up their manufacturing centers and move them out of the country.
We need representatives that place our needs as citizens above all else, and turn things around.

I noticed that clothes are being made in Vietnam now. I bought two new suits recently and noticed that.

I just don't see a problem with others sharing in economic benefit. We have the money to buy the stuff, therefore, we must have some type of job or be making money somehow. Somebody is buying what we make or do. Wouldn't we protest if some other country objected to buying American?

they set huge tarifs on ANYTHING we make and sell to them......we charge almost nothing or no tarifs on products sent here. Its an unfair market....And that doesnt even bring up the horrendous working conditions in China. It bothers me that a child or a young woman who is "made" to work 14 hrs a day is making my cheap ass shoes or tshirts.

When the dollar goes down, the Euro and sometimes Yen get more expensive. The Chinese currency is set to move only a tiny amount even if the Chinese economy is going great guns and the U.S. economy is in the toilet.

It makes everything we sell to them unnaturally expensive and everything they sell to us unnaturally cheap.

The MFN treaty might actually forbid this currency situation at this time, but Shrub won't look into it.

MSN (or was it MSNBC) has a whole series on Chinese consumers. "Keeping Up With The Wangs" (google that precise title.)

Slave labor bothers me too... and in a "free market", which we aren't, why would either side impose tariffs or any restrictions?

You have some good points there.

John Deere stuff. We are now a "service" uneconomy!

I don't mind other people being helped.

But:

1. We at home are losing; infrastructure offshoring. Migration is not the same thing as any proper definition of "globalization".
2. What if we are helping those countries fund the means to kill everyone else? :tinfoilhat:
3. Everyone else talks of not buying Chinese-made goods, often more harshly, so why can't I?
4. A sportcoat I bought on clearance, $60, was made in China. Possibly cost $1 to make, and probably via sweatshop labor but I have no proof therefore I should not wallow in hyperbole.
5. You're utterly correct: "Wouldn't we protest if some other country objected to buying American?" Once again, I am not against improving other peoples' lives. Why is it happening at the cost of our own? People with Masters degrees losing to offshoring (cheap labor elsewhere), and people spending $40k for a $30k graphic design job also losting out (cheap labor elsewhere). The other countries' economies allow the lower costs and therefore allowing them to build up. This is an imbalance that must be addressed if America is to remain competitive at all.

In a global economy, it's a massive symbiosis. And it's faltering right now because of too great an imbalance.

That's the only way they don't underprice us at labor.

But we don't seem to be so poor that we can't buy the stuff at all, and that includes shipping it all that way. How does it come out cheaper to buy a suite made in Vietnam and shipped all the way here versus one made in say the same city and only trucked a short distance?

We have the choice of not buying from them and making the same things here. The problem with complaining on these subjects is that we allow big business as the only ones allowed to set up a factory.

Why don't we get together and make a clothing factory, pay decent wages and convince other Americans to pay the higher prices for the sake of keeping everything local? Is that possible? Is it even desirable?

You are being intellectually lazy, basically your saying most products are made in China, I can't do anything about it so I will buy everything from China without regard to the consequences to my fellow hard working Americans. Do your homework and when you have a choice buy American. Ask and ye shall receive, you can buy Goodyear tires made in the US and yes union made, Bunn still makes coffee makers in America and they last five times longer than those cheap China Mr. Coffee makers. Go online you can buy jeans, shirts, pants, socks and jackets all union made from "All American Clothing" and cheaper than at most department stores. I always ask if there is a similar product made in the USA and on several occasions I request the counter help go back and check stock for the one made in America and I always let management know I am not buying their particular product because it is not made in the USA.
I do not own a China dvd player, I-Pod, I-Phone, microwave, coffee maker, washer or dryer and I get along just dandy without a china cell phone. If you need a cell phone do not upgrade, use it until it fails, slow down the money flowing out of America. Please go back and do some research on the labor movement of the 40's and 50's, everybody stuck together for the benefit of all working Americans, it is vital for democracy and for our very survival that we get back to this way of thinking, we are caught in a whirlpool sucking us down into the cesspool of Fascism!!.

Free trade is protectionism, it protects the multinational corporations against the 150 million working Americans trying to survive and make a living wage. If you think this just protects a factory worker think again in late 2006 bill Gates was up before congress asking to raise the visa quota for engineers from India, they can pay them 40-60% less, that very Christmas Americans were literally mugging each other in Wall Mart parking lots for made in China Microsoft X-Boxes, What's wrong with this picture? Corporations won't stop until everyone is working for minimum wage and by buying their products manufactured overseas you are making their job that much easier. I am just barely scratching the surface on this subject but you get the point...BTW a service economy is the least efficient way to employ Americans or support a nation monitairly....
REGARDS.....

every manufactured item that we use leaves us much less maneuvering room in our foreign policy.

Multinationals don't care much about that, but I do.

Not as often, mind you... but I've seen plenty of products made in the USA, and not everything made in China is automatically bad. (though it's been fun criticize bashing products like toothpaste, certain toys, pet food, and so on... the truth is in the middle. But I do "buy American" when possible. Some times I can't. Electronics being the one inescapable commodity, of course... little of that is made here anymore.

Thank you for posting. Believe it or not, I do agree with you. I know of the times of the 1950s - even mentioned "1950s" once (a post was discussing if we could live in a time, which one would it be) and the non-thinking buffoons decided I was thinking something sexist and got attacked... you think I'm ignorant, let me send you a list of names. I'd rather not, that probably breaks a rule or two...

Our service-economy is helping fewer people than it should. A healthy society takes care of its own while helping others, and right now I only see the imbalances. Maybe I need to be on lithium or something. :)

I don't own an ipod. My PDA is several years old and I only buy a replacement battery when it dies. It plays music too. I own no xbox. I've been tempted with the news articles about the wii and physical therapy, but have resisted.

He queries the sales people, complains that everything is made in China therefore it is crap and unAmerican, won't buy it, drags me from store to store til we can find an American made product, bitches OUT LOUD in any store we're in that everything isn there has been made in China, talks about Chinese slave labor to sales people. EVERY SINGLE TIME WE GO INTO A STORE!!

He checks labels, tags, looks for where things are made and then goes on the attack. Man, it can get intense. He's obsessed. We were in Goodwill today and he starts bitching about used shoes being made in China.

:wow:

I mean, I'll look at labels from time to time, especially regarding the product, but I don't get that riled. :)